Record: 4-0-0
When Week 8 started, the Capitals had not had so much as a
single winning streak of three games this season. When the week ended, the Caps had a five-game
winning streak. It is their longest
winning streak since putting together a five-game streak late last season, in
Games 73-77. They have not had a longer
streak since late in the 2016-2017 season when they had a six-game winning
streak in Games 71-76.
The four wins had significance in their location as well. The two wins on home ice, against the Chicago
Blackhawks and the Detroit Red Wings, snapped the Caps’ first and only two-game
losing streak in regulation time on home ice this season. The two road wins, in Montreal against the Canadiens
and in New York against the Rangers to start and finish the week, were the
first consecutive road wins for the Caps this season on the road.
The four wins tied for the league lead for the week, and the
Caps finished alone on top of the Metropolitan Division for the first time
since October 4th.
Offense: 4.25/game (season: 3.43/game, rank: 5th)
Productive and prolific. The Caps recorded 17 goals in four
games, ten players lighting the lamp at least once in Week 8. Four different players had multi-goal weeks,
ranging from the entirely normal to the completely unexpected. Alex Ovechkin led the club with four goals and
finished the week with goals in four of his last five games. He finished the week tied for third in the
league in goals (17), two behind Patrik Laine and one behind Jeff Skinner. Tom Wilson continues his hot start after his
lengthy suspension to open the season.
Wilson had three goals in Week 8, recording one in each of the three
games to end the week. It is his longest
goal game streak in his career to date. Brett
Connolly had a pair of goals, one each in Montreal and in New York to begin and
end the week put to rest a seven-game streak without a goal coming into the
week.
What might have been completely unexpected was the two-goal
week by defenseman Michal Kempny. Both
came on home ice, one against his old club, the Chicago Blackhawks, and the other
against the Detroit Red Wings. They were
the first goals he scored this season, breaking a 17-game streak without a goal
to open the season and his last goal scored since his last regular season game
last season against the New Jersey Devils.
The Caps had 16 of 19 skaters dressing in Week 8 record at
least one point. Ovechkin, Wilson, and
John Carlson tied for the team lead with six apiece, all of Carlson’s coming on
assists. If there was one odd statistic
on offense for the week it was in shots on goal. It was strange enough that Alex Ovechkin did
not lead the team in shots (his 12 shots on goal were second-highest), but what
made it that much stranger was Nicklas Backstrom leading the team with 13 shots
on goal.
Defense: 2.50/game (season: 3.13/game, rank: T-19th)
It could have ended worse for the Caps in Week 8, based on
the numbers on the defensive side of the ledger. Washington held none of their four opponents
under 30 shots on goal and averaged allowing more than 36 shots per game for
the week (36.3). The Caps allowed the
Canadiens 44 shots in the 5-4 overtime win to open the week, the second time in
two trips to Montreal this season that the Caps gave up 44 shots to the
Habs.
It was a bit, but not a lot better in 5-on-5 shot
attempts. The Caps were underwater in
the first three games of the week before climbing over 50 percent against the
Rangers (55.68 percent) to end the week.
The Caps were only 37.76 percent against the Blackhawks, but that result
is tempered somewhat by the fact that the Caps never trailed in that game. They scored two goals in the first seven
minutes to put the Blackhawks in a hole, a more desperate team that increased
their shot attempt volumes in an effort to get back into the game.
Goaltending: 2.46 / .931 (season: 2.93 / .908 / 1 SO)
Week 8 was one of those weeks in which one sees why one
goalie is the number one netminder, and the other is the backup. As to the latter, Pheonix Copley got a start
in Montreal as the club wanted to give Braden Holtby one more game’s worth of
relief after he missed a few games to an upper body injury. That was the plan, anyway. Copley lasted 21 minutes and change against
the Canadiens, giving up four goals on 22 shots before Holtby took over with
the Caps down, 4-2. Holtby did what a
relief goalie is asked to do in that situation, hold the fort and give his team
a chance to come back. He stopped all 22
shots he faced in 42 minutes, allowing the Caps to tie the game in regulation
and win it in overtime.
Holtby was superb against Chicago and Detroit in the week’s
home games, stopping 68 of 71 shots over the two games. He gave way to Copley against the Rangers in
the back half of a back-to-back set of games, and Copley was good enough,
stopping 27 of 30 shots in the Caps’ 5-3 win to close the week. Holtby’s .962 even strength save percentage
was fourth-best in the league among all goalies facing at least 25 even
strength shots on goal.
The most noteworthy goaltending numbers for the week were
the first period shots on goal. In four
games, Holtby and Copley faced a total of 58 shots, stopping a combined 55 of
them (a .948 save percentage). It was in
no small part due to their first period work that the Caps had a four-win week,
the club suffering sluggish starts in each game.
Power Play: 2-for-10/20.0
percent (season: 27.8 percent, rank: 4th)
Week 8 started well, but it did not end well on the power
play. The Caps scored goals on two of
their first three man advantages for the week but then drew a blank on their
last seven power play chances. At the
team level, the Caps did not have a bad week in terms of power play
productivity. They did managed 17 shots
on goal in 17:53 of power play time.
However, of that number, Alex Ovechkin had only two shots on goal,
scoring on one of them. Chicago and New
York were able to hold him without a power play shot on goal.
The power play finished at 20 percent or better for the seventh
time in eight weeks, but the voltage has dropped a bit. After six weeks the power play was smoking
along at 32.7 percent, but over the last two weeks it is 3-for-20, the 15.0
percent level of efficiency ranking only 23rd in the league over
that span.
If there was a silver lining in the power play numbers for
the week, it could be found in the other goal.
Andre Burakovsky had that one, his power play goal against Chicago being
his first power play goal and first power play point of the season. It was his first power play goal and first
power play point since he recorded a man advantage goal in a 3-2 loss to the
Florida Panthers last February 22nd.
Penalty Killing: 11-for-12 / 91.7 percent (season: 75.9 percent, rank: 24th)
It was a fine week for the Caps on the penalty kill. They allowed a power play goal to Montreal on
the second half of a double-minor roughing penalty on Matt Niskanen to open the
penalty killing for the week, and then they pitched a shutout the rest of the
way.
The Caps did manage to do a fair job in suppressing shots, especially
in the last three games of the week when they allowed only 11 power play shots
on goal in 14:12 of shorthanded ice time.
As it turned out, Braden Holtby was the only netminder for the week to
face more than ten power play shots on goal to turn away all the shots he
faced.
Faceoffs: 114-for-230 / 49.6 percent (season: 48.8 percent,
rank: 21st)
It was a better week in the circle than the overall numbers
might suggest. Four of the five Caps
taking at least ten draws for the week finished over 50 percent, Nicklas
Backstrom being the only one of that group finishing under 50 percent. It was mostly the “second man” group, those
who generally take draws when one of the principals is tossed out, that came up
short, winning only six of 20 draws for the week.
On the other hand, the numbers were puffed up some by
winning 38 of 65 neutral zone faceoffs (58.5 percent). In the ends, things were not as
positive. The Caps won only 30 of 64
draws in the offensive zone (46.9 percent) and only 46 of 101 defensive zone
faceoffs (45.5 percent). That
offensive-defensive zone differential of 37 more draws in the defensive end
suggested that for much of the week the ice was tilted toward the Caps’ end of
the ice.
Goals by Period:
Week 8 was one in which the Caps finished games strong. They posted third period goals in all four
games, six goals in all. On the other
side, they allowed only two third period strikes, one to Chicago and one to the
Rangers.
The starts of games were a mixed bag, though. Washington allowed only three first period
goals in Week 8, but all of them were first goals in those games. Allowing the first goal in three of four
games, as the Caps did in Week 8, is not a long term recipe for success.
As has been the case for much of the season, the Caps
dominated the middle periods of games, but not as much as they have been over
the first seven weeks. They did manage a
plus-1 goal differential (six scored, five allowed) to improve their season
differential in the second period to plus-11.
It matters, since the Caps have a net minus differential in the other
two regulation periods – minus-1 in the first periods of games and minus-4 in
the third periods of games.
Year over Year:
The four-win week allowed this year’s edition of the Caps to
pull away from last year’s at a comparable point of the season. At the highest level of performance, this
year’s club has been able to grind out points in more games (16 of 23 versus 13
of 23 last season). Drilling down
through the numbers, the scoring defense is unchanged, but the scoring offense
is up 21.5 percent from this point last year (plus-14 in goals).
Special teams have improved, going from a minus-5 goal
differential last season (exclusive of shorthanded goals) to even this season,
but that latter differential suggests work needs to be done on the penalty
kill, which is once more under 80 percent.
In other respects the Caps are continuing trends established
over the first seven weeks. They are
still under 50 percent on 5-on-5 shot attempts, but they continue to be ahead
of last year’s pace on hits and blocked shots.
And, they are still almost one penalty taken per game and almost three
penalty minutes per game behind last year’s penalty pace.
In the end…
Week 8 was the Caps first four-win week of the season,
doubling the highest weekly win total over the first seven weeks (two wins,
accomplished three times). Since going
winless in Week 5, the Caps are 8-3-0 over the last three weeks, suggesting
that they are perhaps settling into a higher level of play than they exhibited
in the first five weeks.
In a perverse sense, going into a week of light work in Week 9 – two games
– might not be the best of situations, but those two games against the New York
Islanders and the New Jersey Devils do provide the challenge and the
opportunity to send a message to divisional rivals. Still, Week 8 will be hard to top.
Three Stars:
- First Star: Braden Holtby (3-0-0, 1.11, .968)
- Second Star: Alex Ovechkin (4-2-6, plus-5, 1 PPG, 12 shots on goal, 26 shot attempts, tied Mario Lemieux for seventh place all-time in power play goals)
- Third Star: Michal Kempny (2-2-4, plus-6, 2 game-winning goals, 20:53 average ice time)
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